Hi all! I hope this finds you well. We are good but BUSY! Michael is in second grade and is doing well. He's one of the top readers in his class and is learning double digit addition, carrying tens, and studying geology and lifecycles in science. His improvement just from last year to this (we only have a 5 week break summer.....) is astounding! Izabella is in kindergarten this year and she LOVES it. She burns through her 4 to 6 pages of homework in about 20 minutes and asks for more. Anytime she brings home any kind of paperwork she tells me "guess what mommy, I got more homework today!" If its only informational papers for me she gets SO disappointed. She is learning phonics and doing well. She has learned the letters a, b, m, n, r, s, t- their sounds and names, and she is already figuring out how to spell words by sounding them out (like cat, sat, bat, hat, ran, can). We have a dry erase easel in the living room and she'll just spend 30 minutes sounding out and writing different words. She is learning her numbers 1 through 10 and doing many creative art projects that she loves! Penngrove is so awesome!!!!! The teachers have been wonderful and both sets have allowed me to bring all the kids in once a week to help in the classroom (Michael's room for about 40 minutes in the morning on Fridays and a little over an hour in Izabella's classroom on Wednesdays). I'm also doing the book orders for Michael's class this year. If feels so good to help out the teachers. They are amazing and underpaid. Their dedication and commitment, I just can't say enough about them!!!! Kathrynn is as mischievous and hilarious as ever. She speaks very concisely and will tell you exactly what you should and shouldn't be doing. She is now waiting very impatiently to start school herself. If you ask her what her or anyone else in the family's name is she will very clearly tell you Daddy, Mommy, Michael Blaine Murray, Izabella Jeanne Murray, Kathrynn Heather Murray, and Andrew Lyle Murray. She doesn't say just their first name, its the whole thing. She likes to help me out and she also does very well independently. She loves to color and play imaginative games. You'll find her quietly in the living room playing with her toys (mostly animals, she LOVES animals, she usually walks around saying, "I love your doggy, I love the kitty", as a matter of fact, that's what Kathrynn is saying most of the time, she LOVES everything, or she hates me, but you know, that goes with the mommy territory, they love you and they hate you, laugh or cry, there's no in between.....). Andrew is not quite walking yet but he climbs everything. If he can't climb onto it he'll push a stool or chair (even from another room) up to it so that he can climb it. He gets on and off the beds, couches, and chairs in the kitchen. He can't get onto the kitchen counter, but he can push the chairs up to them so that he can reach the entire thing. No really many signs of walking. He will stand up by himself, but he doesn't like to do it. He will walk along things, and push things from room to room standing up, but no walking by himself. All the other kids were walking by now, but I'm not too worried about it. I can hardly keep up with him on all fours, I don't know what I'm going to do when he's running on two!!! Andrew is still the happiest baby in the whole world. He is also the most loved. The kids will squabble, usually Kathrynn being the odd "man" out, but everyone LOVES Andrew. The kid is going to be spoiled rotten, even if I don't do it the kids will (and I'll be hard pressed to not spoil him myself, he melts me, I'm putty in his 1 year old hands.....). He is talking a little, you know, dada and mama, and he's into everything. Lyle is well, work is stressful but its work and we're all VERY glad he has a job in these rough times. I'm good and busy just trying to keep everyone fed, clean, caught up with their homework, keeping the house clean (and of course Lyle helps with ALL these things too) and getting everyone to where they are supposed to be mostly on time. By the way, Michael had perfect attendance last year, and no tardies. Thanks to Lyle making breakfast and lunches, the kids working with us to get to school on time, no illnesses (amazing!), he was one of 15 kids in the entire student body of 320 that accomplished that. He's already missed 1.5 days this year because of illness, but neither he nor Izabella have any tardies, and tomorrow is the day of our first three week break! Where does the time go! Well, I hope this finds you all well. Sorry that its been so long since I've written. I'm swamped!!! I love you all, and the rest of the family does too. Thank you for your love, support, and tolerance. We miss you! love,jean and family
Oh, I forgot, Lyle got up early on Michael's bday day, even though it was a school/work day, and made homemade pancakes from scratch (you know, home ground whole wheat flour and all the other ingredients) for the family, that's the photo of Michael and the Micky Mouse pancake. No offense to all you all, but I really do have the best husband in the whole world. Thanks to Jerry and Marylyn. I don't think my kids will appreciate, at least until they are trying to have families of their own, and perhaps not even then, how great their dad is. Thank you Lyle. I love and appreciate you, and the whole world should know it! :) Thanks to all you husbands, grandfathers and fathers, you'll never really know the influence you have on your kids, but they take on many of your character attributes and they look up to you so very much! love,jean
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